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Read Ebook: Buffalo Bill's Bold Play; Or The Tiger of the Hills by Ingraham Prentiss
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Ebook has 650 lines and 12448 words, and 13 pages
"In the second," sighed Jacques.
"Oh yes!--bah!"
"Really, now!--well, I don't say!"
And the unfortunate lover stretched languidly upon the lounge, studied the ceiling, and sighed piteously.
His friend burst into a roar of laughter. Jacques--for let us adopt the sobriquets all round--turned negligently and said:
"Pray what are you braying at, Sir Asinus?"
"At your sighs."
"Did I sigh?"
"Yes, portentously!"
"I think you are mistaken."
"No!"
"I never sigh."
And the melancholy Jacques uttered a sigh which was enough to shatter all his bulk.
The consequence was that Sir Asinus burst into a second roar of laughter louder than before, and said:
"Belle-bouche--Belle-bouche: but I am not in love with her."
"Oh no--of course not," said his friend, laughing ironically.
Jacques sighed.
"She don't like me," he said forlornly.
"She's very fond of me though," said his friend. "Only yesterday--but I am mad to be talking about it."
With which words Sir Asinus turned away his head to hide his mischievous and triumphant smile.
Poor Jacques looked more forlorn than ever; which circumstance seemed to afford his friend extreme delight.
"Why not pay your addresses to Philippa, Jacques my boy?" he said satirically; "there's no chance for you with Belle-bouche, as you call her."
"Philippa? No, no!" sighed Jacques; "she's too brilliant."
"For you?"
"Even for me--me, the prince of wits, and coryphaeus of coxcombs: yes, yes!"
And the melancholy Jacques sighed again, and looked around him with the air of a man whose last hope on earth has left him.
His friend chokes down a laugh; and stretching himself in the bright spring sunshine pouring through the window, says with a smile:
"Come, make a clean breast of it, old fellow. You were there to-day?"
"Yes, yes."
"Have a pleasant time?"
"Can't say I did."
"Were there any visitors?"
"A dozen--you understand the description of visitors."
"No; what sort?"
"Fops in embryo, and aspirants after wit-laurels."
"It is well you went--they must have been thrown in the shade. For you, my dear Jacques, are undeniably the most perfect fop, and the greatest wit--in your own opinion--of this pleasant village of Devilsburg."
With which words the forlorn Jacques gazed languidly through the window.
At the same moment a bell was heard ringing in the direction of the College; and yawning first luxuriously, the young man rose.
"Lecture, by Jove!" he said.
"And you, unfortunate victim, must attend," said his companion.
"Yes. You remain here?"
"To the end."
"Still resisting?"
"To the death!"
"Very well," said Jacques, putting on his cocked hat, which was ornamented with a magnificent feather. "I half envy you; but duty calls--I must go."
"If you see Ned Carter, or Tom Randolph of Tuckahoe, tell them to come round."
"To comfort you? Poor unfortunate prisoner!"
"No, most sapient Jacques: fortunately I do not need comfort as you do."
"I want comfort?"
"Yes; there you are sighing: that 'heigho!' was dreadful."
"Scoffer!"
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